Land, Energy, and Environmental Law

March 14, 2016

Author: Lauren Love

By Professor John Nagle

The Law School’s program of study in Land, Energy, and Environmental Law enables students to study and experience how the law governs the natural world of which we are a part. It features courses, guest speakers, externships, and other opportunities to consider topics ranging from the redevelopment of vacant houses in the local community of South Bend to the effects of China’s energy production on climate change.

This year we are at the forefront of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The Law School has hosted a gathering of park superintendents and scholarly experts to discuss how the law affects the management of our treasured national parks, including opportunities for student engagement with those park leaders. Our students have assisted the attorneys in the Alaskan regional office of the Park Service to address cutting-edge legal questions. One class visited the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to see and learn about an ecological restoration project that has been the subject of litigation that the students studied. Our faculty is writing about the evolving role of national parks in the 21st century world.

In addition to the opportunities in the classroom, many students seek experience through the Environmental Law Society. The Environmental Law Society recently traveled to Flint, Mich to lend a hand with the response to the current water crisis. You can learn more about their experience in Flint here.

Professor John Copeland Nagle was named John N. Matthews Professor in 2005. Nagle joined the law faculty in 1998 and was the law school’s inaugural associate dean for faculty research from 2004-2007. He has published many books, book chapters, law review publications, and opinion pieces. Twice a Fulbright scholar, Nagle has served on the faculty of both Tsinghua University Law School in Beijing in 2002 and the University of Hong Kong in 2008. He has lectured on environmental, legislation, and property issues at numerous forums in the United States, Canada, China, Hungary, and Malaysia. Prior to joining the Notre Dame faculty, Professor Nagle was an associate professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law from 1994 through 1998. He also worked in the United States Department of Justice, served as a law clerk to Judge Deanell Reece Tacha of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and was a scientific assistant in the Energy and Environmental Systems Division of Argonne National Laboratory. He is a graduate of Indiana University and the University of Michigan Law School.